I wanted the scenes in the deep woods to be very spooky. I made the trees bristly and made Swift's hackles stand up.

I wanted the page in which Swift is gone and Johnnie is all alone to be very, very eerie. I tried many different ways of doing this- by having Johnnie standing alone, by seeing him behind three....and finally, I thought of how, when I was small, I'd sometimes hide under my bed. Perfect. I showed Johnnie hiding under the tree on the bed of pine needles.

I used eerie colors to enhance the feeling of disorientation and fear, too. Here you see the painting in its beginning, middle, and end stages.

When Swift comes back, Johnnie gains his courage. The boy finally can take a shot at the dangerous bear. But he misses this time. Johnnie is still so wrapped up in his own world that he does not see that Swift has injuries from his fight with the wolves.

This shows the progression of one of my favorite paintings in the book. I wanted to show how Johnnie and Swift were running from one danger right into another. I used the landscape to create that feeling. Behind them, the landscape is autumn-like but outside the thick woods, snow has fallen. This was a tricky painting, but a very fun painting to create.

My homesteader friend Larry told me that he'd often fallen through ice and gotten wet in below zero weather. He told me that you can survive it, but you have to keep moving. Do you remember how he said that when his feet got wet they first felt itchy, then they hurt- a lot? I decided to put that idea into my story. In the story SWIFT I have Johnnie get just a little wet- because he does not fall in the beaver pond, but in the shallow runoff below it.

Funny thing is, a reviewer named Kristen Cutler wrote that, (in SWIFT)"Some of the events are not fully credible. At one point Johnnie falls into the "icy" beaver pond....it seems somewhat unbelievable that he can survive the cold and snow despite his frozen feet and frozen clothing." I wonder if this reviewer read my book? Because I never said that Johnnie fell into the "icy" beaver pond, or any beaver pond- I wrote, "Loose wood, frozen mud, and I fell into the runoff below." And the runoff only has a few inches of water. Plus, Larry and other Alaskan homesteaders assured me that he would survive this incident. And hey, I was there. Like Johnnie, before understanding his dog, perhaps she assumed what I meant, and did not hear what I said.

At first I thought I might show Johnnie reacting to getting wet (first sketch). But then I realized that I needed to show not only Swift coming to his side, but I needed to show Johnnie's awareness that the dog was vulnerable, too- but that Swift would not give up no matter what happened to himself.

I started a painting showing Swift coming to his side. but it lacked power, somehow. Then I knew I had to come in close to get the feeling that I wanted.

On this page I wanted to show space and distance. Johnnie is cold and worn out and beginning to show signs of hypothermia. It's all up to Swift now- and the dog comes through. He finds Geezers broken-down cabin which can shelter them both.

But there is danger even in the cabin. Swift hears the bear outside. He wants to get Johnnie out of the cabin- you never want to be caught in a small space with an angry grizzly (do yuou remember that I learned that from Larry?). But Johnnie won't leave the room- what would Swift do? At first I had Swift bite him to get him going. But then I didn't want Swift to be a dog who would ever bite. Next, I thought it would be interesting to see the scene through the old broken roof. Then I realized that would be too distracting. Why would we suddenly be looking through the roof and how did it get broken? I decided to show Swift pulling on Johnnie's trouser leg, showing the snow blowing into the room, and putting a dramatic shadow on the floor.

Finally, Johnnie understands- and takes control of the situation.

Click on a page number below to read more about SWIFT